On the roster (8): Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper, Jonah Elliss, Que Robinson, Dondrea Tillman, Drew Sanders, Johnny Walker and Dasan McCullough.

How many on the 53? 4-6

Most impactful offseason move: The ongoing uncertainty around Jonathon Cooper as he faces a felony assault charge.

This obviously is not a roster move or a transaction, but it is the story of the offseason for the Broncos outside linebackers. Cooper, 28, was expected to pair with Bonitto for yet another season as one of the league’s most disruptive edge-rushing duos. Instead, his own immediate playing future with the Broncos is in limbo and so, too, is Denver’s plan at the position. Cooper could be released by the Broncos and, even if he’s not, faces a potentially lengthy suspension from the NFL given the domestic violence-related nature of the charges he faces stemming from incidents involving an ex-girlfriend earlier this year. On the field, Cooper has played in every game for Denver over the past three years and, in that span, collected 27 sacks and 27 tackles for loss while playing 74% (2023), 71% (2024), and 61% (2025) of defensive snaps. If he is gone or misses a chunk of the season, his absence will rival John Franklin-Myers’ as the defense’s biggest to fill.

Biggest question to answer in camp: How do the Broncos fill the Cooper void?

There are still steps to play out, but for the purposes of this exercise, let����ap assume Denver is going to play, at minimum, some games without Cooper. Maybe all of them. Are they as well equipped as they appear to fill the snaps he played? Cooper is not only a good pass-rusher, but he’s been stout against the run, too. That����ap important opposite Bonitto, who has worked hard to turn himself into a competitive player against the run, but whose calling card is world-class pass-rush ability. Among the rest of the outside linebacker group, Tillman and Robinson are bigger players and have earned high marks in run defense. Elliss’ most natural ability is rushing the passer, but he’s shown he can handle the run game, too, and Denver likes his versatility so much that in some sub packages he may end up playing more in the middle of the field. That trio is capable of rounding out an upper-echelon four-man rotation with Bonitto, but only if each takes the next step in his game this fall.

Battle to watch: The starting job opposite Bonitto

Again, for this exercise let����ap assume Cooper’s starting spot is up for grabs. It’ll be a heated battle. There’s a realistic outcome in which playing time varies depending on opponent, but outside linebackers coach Isaac Shewmaker and coordinator Vance Joseph want players they can count on in any game situation. Elliss and Tillman have more experience than Robinson, but Robinson looks like a true breakout candidate going into his second season. He played only 370 defensive snaps in his collegiate career at Alabama and then dressed for six regular-season games as a rookie, but showed tantalizing flashes whenever he got opportunities over his rookie year. Now, can he turn himself into a regularly impactful player in his second season? That����ap a big jump, but if he can make it, Robinson will have every chance to win a starting job opposite Bonitto.

Under the radar: Sanders

Throw Sanders in the mix of 2023 Broncos draft picks entering an interesting final year of his rookie deal. Sanders, of course, has played less and is more of an unknown than second-round pick Marvin Mims Jr. or fellow third-round pick Riley Moss. He played in all 17 games as a rookie but has appeared in just four since then, first because of a torn Achilles tendon in the spring of 2024 and then because of a training camp foot injury last summer that cost him the entire season. Sanders, though, remains an intriguing athlete at 6-foot-4 and when he’s been healthy, he’s been a dangerous pass-rusher. The question is whether he’s simply missed too much time to make up enough ground to carve out a role in Denver’s rotation, though the number of players in front of him gets smaller if Cooper ends up out of the picture. Joseph has a knack for finding ways to use unique athletes — Sanders logged a sack from a blitz package on the first defensive snap he played late in the 2024 season — so if he can put together a healthy training camp and looks good on special teams, he could still be a factor this fall.

This week, Broncos quarterback Bo Nix placed 18th in ESPN’s , compiled from anonymous conversations with various NFL staffers. Indicative, certainly, of league-wide belief that Nix has steps to take entering Year 3: he did finish 26th of 33 qualified quarterbacks in passer rating (87.8) and 28th in yards-per-attempt (6.4) last year, after all. But the mid-tier placement given Nix’s league-leading seven game-winning drives in 2025 and playoff win over Bills star Josh Allen.

Was such a ranking fair? Who knows. Probably a bit low. But we here at The Post are not here to speculate about league-wide hot takes; we��have��decided to speculate, though, about Broncos-specific hot takes that have been simmering in the back of our minds for an offseason since Denver fell to New England in last year’s AFC Championship.

With that in mind, Broncos beat reporters Parker Gabriel and Luca Evans have assembled individual lists of five sizzling predictions for Denver’s 2026 season (plus one completely off-the-wall take), a couple of short weeks removed from the start of training camp. Time for our own slightly informed think-piece. Let’s dive in.

Disclaimer: We are in no way advocating for these to come true or rooting for these predictions to take place. These are solely opinions and should be viewed as such.

Parker Gabriel’s takes

No. 1. I am less confident in the Broncos making the postseason this year than I was at this time last year.

To be clear, I think the Broncos will make the playoffs and will be surprised if they don’t. But the first-place schedule is no joke. The opening six games are brutal. The stretch run is no joke. Denver has been largely healthy in the regular season since Payton arrived. The changes on defense in both personnel and staff might be a bit underrated. Plus, when a team is so good in one-score games one year, there’s natural wonder about regression the next year. Plus, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson didn’t make the playoff field last year. Teams will beat up on each other, but 10-7 isn’t a sure ticket to the playoffs this fall in the AFC.

No. 2. Que Robinson will finish second on the team in sacks

Part of this, naturally, is because of the uncertainty around Jonathon Cooper’s future as he faces a felony assault charge stemming from June’s domestic violence-related incidents with his former girlfriend. Part of it, though, is because Robinson looks like a true breakout candidate going into his second season. Could Jonah Elliss get to 10 sacks with more playing time? Sure. Might Zach Allen set a new career-high and flirt with double digits? Certainly possible. But Robinson’s explosiveness and his ability to play in any down-and-distance situation make him an intriguing candidate behind clear team sack leader Nik Bonitto.

No. 3. The Broncos won’t trade a player who is slated to have a substantial role this summer, but they should

Nearly every move Denver has made this offseason has been about winning this fall. Certainly, they’ve done some long-range planning in how they structured contract extensions and they opted to let John Franklin-Myers walk even though technically they could have afforded to keep him, but by and large this looks like a team that����ap putting a lot of chips in right now. Makes sense with Bo Nix still on his rookie contract. We also know depth is paramount as seasons grind on. Still, if the Broncos are relatively healthy by the middle of training camp, there’s a decent chance somebody else around the league will want somebody on Denver’s roster. Is that Ben Powers? Riley Moss? Troy Franklin? Jarrett Stidham? The Broncos profited nicely by trading Devaughn Vele last summer. They can afford to do something similar this summer if a team comes calling in a similar fashion, and it’d be good business for the future.

No. 4. The next Broncos assistant to get a head coaching interview is Evan Rothstein and it will happen this winter��

Three Broncos assistant coaches got head coaching interviews this winter: Webb, Joseph and special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi, so they’re off the board. Rothstein isn’t an on-field coordinator like those three — his title is director of game management and assistant QB coach — but Payton holds him in extremely high regard. He’s instrumental in the building, even if he doesn’t get a ton of public mention by Broncos coaches and staffers. He’ll get some head-coaching buzz and will be a sneaky offensive-coordinator candidate in Denver if Webb gets a head-coaching job.

No. 5. Sam Ehlinger will win the No. 2 quarterback job in training camp��

Stidham has been the No. 2 for each of the past three years and is the favorite to win that job again. Webb, though, was really high on Ehlinger as a free agent last spring and the former Colt and Texas Longhorn impressed coaches in his first season with the Broncos. Let����ap say they’re about even through training camp. Do Payton and Webb carry on with the status quo? Or might a bit of a shakeup — with the possibility that Ehlinger’s mobility might be appealing in a short stint relieving Nix — be in order? In this situation, the Broncos probably keep all three on the 53 unless a trade partner materializes for Stiddy.

And one (crazy) extra: If the Broncos win the Super Bowl, Sean Payton will publicly muse about retirement but find the allure of a potential dynasty too much to pass up

One of the more hilarious nuggets in Seth Wickersham’s opus on the Broncos’ postseason run was Payton saying he wants to outlast NFL commissioner Roger Goodell by at least a year, essentially just so he could say he did. But if Denver wins a Super Bowl, Payton will have little left to prove. His Hall of Fame bona fides will be beyond doubt. There would be a post-Super Bowl Sean McVay-esque ‘will he or won’t he’ period fueled by Payton himself. Ultimately, though, the bet here is he’d decide he was about to win three more in the next four years.

Luca Evans’ takes

No. 1. The Broncos start the season 0-3, Myles Garrett sacks Bo Nix at least twice in Week 3, Sean Payton slowly inserts himself back into play-calling duties, and the Webb-Payton hybrid brain trust rides to a top-10 offensive finish.

Is the 31-year-old Davis Webb built to handle the natural ups and downs of his first full NFL season as a play-caller? Yes, if you ask him. Will the notoriously hyperactive 62-year-old Payton give him the full leeway to work through the bumps, in literally the first time Payton has ever given up play-calling? Hard to see. I keep thinking back to a text I sent former Saints running back Deuce McAllister in February before Webb was officially given the keys, on whether he could actually see Payton making the move.

“Hey Luca nice to meet you,” McAllister wrote back. “Sean’s not giving up play calling.”

Of course, Payton did. That text was still indicative of how tightly the coach has gripped his offense over the years, as central to not only his NFL identity but his identity as a person at large. Payton’s Broncos teams have started the season 0-3, 1-2 and 1-2 in his Denver tenure; these Broncos will now face a healthy Patrick Mahomes at Arrowhead on “Monday Night Football” to start the year, then come home to play a Jacksonville team that outplayed them last season, then play the arguable Super Bowl favorites in the Los Angeles Rams.

In this scenario, I think Payton quietly maneuvers for more play-calling influence after an early-season slump, a combination of tough love and natural acclimation steadies the ship, and a Webb-Payton hybrid attack puts the Broncos back in the playoffs as a middle-ish AFC seed.

No. 2. The Broncos trade Riley Moss by November’s trade deadline, and maybe sooner.

Moss has a near-perfect demeanor as Denver’s CB2 opposite Pat Surtain. But there is a wide set of factors working against his long-term staying power in Denver. Firstly, he’s a proven, productive cornerback who could hit free agency after 2026 and earn a few million more than the Broncos would be willing to pay him. Secondly, the Broncos may need to pick between an extension for him or nickel Ja’Quan McMillian, who’s arguably more valuable to coordinator Vance Joseph’s defensive system. Thirdly, the Broncos have 2025 first-round pick Jahdae Barron now likely set to compete with Moss at outside cornerback come training camp.

The Broncos are in a tricky spot here. If they start Moss, first-round pick Barron would likely play a reserve, situational role for the second year in a row. If they bench Moss, he will naturally lose trade value over the course of the year. The most logical option for the front office would be to either start Moss with the idea of moving him closer to the deadline or trade him sometime before the start of 2026.

No. 3. Rookie running back Jonah Coleman catches 40-plus passes in 2026.��

This isn’t really that hot of a take. Third-string back Tyler Badie saw 31 targets last season, and Coleman will likely play more than Badie did. He caught a bunch of passes during the Broncos’ summer program and had 31 catches for 354 yards in 12 games at Washington last year. And despite the heavy involvement of RJ Harvey, Payton’s offenses have long featured two running backs in the passing game: think Pierre Thomas and Darren Sproles in 2013 (77 and 71 catches, respectively).

No. 4.��Que Robinson racks up at least eight sacks.��

Robinson is a high-upside pass-rusher who took time to develop as a rookie and finished with 1.5 sacks combined across the regular season and playoffs. There’s direct precedent here with the name ahead of Robinson on Denver’s depth chart: Nik Bonitto, a high-upside pass-rusher who took time to develop as a rookie and jumped from 1.5 sacks to eight in his second NFL season.

The Broncos already wanted to create more snaps for Robinson in 2026, and now face an uncertain situation at OLB, as starter Jonathon Cooper is facing a felony assault charge in Douglas County District Court that could lead to league discipline. Regardless of how Cooper’s legal process plays out, Robinson will see the field more in his second season and is poised to capitalize on snaps playing alongside Zach Allen and Denver’s interior pass-rushers.

No. 5. Payton convinces Taysom Hill to come out of semi-retirement midseason.��

Payton loves his guys. Hill, a quarterback-turned-something��who played a key part in Payton’s offenses late in his time in New Orleans, is one of his guys. He is also currently unsigned, and his NFL career might be over at 35 years old after a season averaging 3.3 yards per offensive touch with the Saints.

At least one interesting name seems to find its way into Payton’s locker room every season with depth necessities, though. Remember Marcedes Lewis last year? I have no idea what role Hill would play, or if he’d even get a snap in 2026. I’m just thinking it’ll happen.

And one crazy extra: Frank Crum accounts for at least three offensive touchdowns.

The world changed on Jan. 17, 2026, the day that reserve tackle Frank Crum became an eligible receiver. Crum’s goal-line touchdown in the Broncos’ wild-card win over the Bills was lost in the immediate emotion of Bo Nix’s season-ending injury, but should not be forgotten.

Payton loves gadget players, and the 6-foot-7-plus Crum is agile and versatile enough to legitimately handle a handful of short-yardage touches. Plus, longtime Payton ally John Morton gave him the idea for that Crum play, and Morton is now back permanently on staff. The cards are perfectly aligned for some Crum-mania.

That is the conclusion drawn when digesting ESPN’s quarterback list as ranked by league executives, coaches and scouts. Mahomes was No. 2, Herbert seventh and Nix 18th, the Broncos’ star the equivalent of a college team in the “others receiving votes” in the Associated Press poll.

On the surface, it makes sense. When considering careers, Nix pales to Mahomes, an all-time great, and Herbert, who has long had head-turning numbers. But the inference is that the rankings implied where the quarterbacks stood entering 2026.

Instead, it comes across as a lifetime achievement award because a strong case can be made that Nix has been as good or better than both over the past two seasons.

Blasphemous? Let’s go to the stats.

Take the names off:

Quarterback A: 21-9 record, 65.3% completion, 7,515 yards, 48 touchdowns, 22 interceptions, 70 sacks, 729 rushing yards, 7 TDs.

Quarterback B: 22-11, 66.1%, 7,597 yards, 49 TDs, 16 INTs, 95 sacks, 804 rushing yards, 4 TDs.

Quarterback C: 24-10, 64.8%, 7,706, 54 TDs, 23 INTs, 46 sacks, 786 rushing yards, 9 TD, 1 TD receiving.

Mahomes was A), Herbert B) and Nix C). And are we sure that is the order in how they have played since 2024? Again, not saying Nix is better overall, namely because he must get more consistent in the middle of the field and against zone defenses, but he has better numbers.

Nix has accounted for 64 scores, compared to 55 for Mahomes and 53 for Herbert. He is not as accurate, but by a whisker. He is every bit the ground threat, something he promises will remain as he returns from ankle surgery and a follow-up cleanup procedure. He has more rushing touchdowns than Mahomes and Herbert, and sits 18 yards shy in yards from Herbert.

All three take care of the ball at a similar rate. Mahomes has 22 picks and five fumbles, but none lost for 22 turnovers. Herbert boasts 16 picks, 13 fumbles and four lost for 20 total. And Nix checks in at 23 interceptions, seven fumbles, two lost, for 25.

And perhaps most salient is how Nix prevents negative plays. We can all agree he needs to become more explosive, and the onus is on offensive coordinator Davis Webb to use a simplified run game and Jaylen Waddle in concert to make this happen.

But Nix has only been sacked 46 times in his career, compared to Herbert’s 95 and Mahomes’ 70 over the same stretch.

Mahomes will be ranked in the top 10 for the next 10 years given the NFL industry’s inability to assign a year-over-year WAR value like major league baseball.

The love for Herbert is more puzzling. He looks the part, but has never won a playoff game. And miss me with blaming the offensive line the past two years. He played terribly against Houston and New England. Mike McDaniel could help Herbert reach his potential this season. But at some point, he has to meet the moment in the biggest games.

By comparison, Nix is tied for the lead in fourth-quarter quarterback comebacks (eight) and game-winning drives (10) since entering the league.

It comes down to this. Nix must improve. But he deserves more respect.

Rock on: Under new management, the Rockies received high marks for the most recent draft, especially with first-round shortstop Tyler Bell and starting pitcher Logan Reddemann. Both profile well for the new philosophies implemented at the plate and on the mound. Bell struck out at an 18.5% rate, while walking 15.4% of the time last season at Kentucky. And Reddemann features a live fastball with a varied arsenal of five to six pitches. This is how change happens, by identifying what a future Rockie looks like before he enters the organization

Horsepower: Five Broncos made Pro Football Network’s Top 100 entering the 2026 season: Pat Surtain (seventh), Garett Bolles (24), Quinn Meinerz (35), Zach Allen (56) and Nik Bonitto (59). If Nix cracks this list before next season, it means the Broncos will have likely reached the Super Bowl.

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He’s also got a growing reputation around the NFL.

Allen, the eighth-year man entering his fourth season with the Broncos, was named the No. 73 overall player in the NFL by the league in its annual summer countdown Thursday.

He’s the first — but almost certainly not the last —��Denver player to appear on the list as it moves from No. 100 toward No. 1.

Allen led the NFL with 47 quarterback hits in 2025 and provided punch in the middle that not only resulted in seven sacks and an 11.5% pressure rate, but also helped keep teams from being able to pay too much attention to Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper and the myriad blitzers that defensive coordinator Vance Joseph deployed throughout the year.

When Allen got one-on-one matchups, he thrived. When he didn’t, his presence created them for others.

After the season, Allen was named a first-team Associated Press All-Pro for the first time in his career.

“He has this weird stutter-bull (rush) where his chest will be presented, but by the time you throw your hand out there, his ass is already gone,” Kansas City offensive lineman Trey Smith said in the NFL’s video about Allen. “Very unorthodox with his rush and one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL.”

Marveled teammate and fellow All-Pro Pat Surtain II: “It����ap like watching ballet on grass. The moves he does, the counters, the swim moves.”

No. 73 on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2026… DE Zach Allen!

— NFL (@NFL)

Allen has been a disruptive player since he arrived in Denver via free agency shortly after head coach Sean Payton’s hire. The 28-year-old has averaged 63 quarterback hits per year with the Broncos and has logged a pressure rate of 11.3% or better in each season.

“In this league you’ve kind of always got to keep on finding ways to get better and adjusting and all that,” said Allen, who inked a four-year, $102 million extension during training camp last summer. “It also helps when you’ve got ‘V.J.’ dialing stuff up that helps us get one-on-ones. We’ve got a lot of good guys and that����ap going to create a lot of opportunities for people.

“We came close to the sack record last year and we fully expect to break it this year.”

That would be quite an accomplishment, considering the Broncos logged a franchise-record 63 sacks last fall — re-breaking the mark they set in 2024 — and came up just five short of Chicago’s single-season record.

In the process, Allen has started to accumulate individual accolades, including the All-Pro nod and his first Pro Bowl selection last season.

“It����ap definitely nice to get it. Obviously, growing up as a kid, you dream of stuff like that,” he said this summer. “The cool thing, too, is we have a lot of guys and it����ap really a cohesive group and everyone helps everyone. That����ap why you saw so many guys get recognition on the team. With team success comes individual awards.

“We’ve just got to keep on winning and more guys will keep getting awards.”

He picked at the dirt in the front yard, right underneath the pecan tree. Sennecca’s voice rose and fell with a hymn, as her daughter wrapped Marty’s scales in an LSU flag and gently placed him in a small hole.

“You gon’ get another one?” Jones’ sister asked him as she patted the flag down.

He did — Coco, Jones named it — because through high school and eventual stardom at LSU, the now-Broncos 23-year-old defensive lineman has carried an obsession with bearded dragons that nobody in his circle can quite explain. Jones went everywhere with Marty, the lizard sinking its talons into his shirt and hanging along for the ride. His old high school coach, Robert Valdez, always found it personally unsettling how settled Jones was with a four-legged reptile crawling across his neck.

“He’s a different kid,” Valdez told The Post last year. “His best friend is a lizard.”

Jones is a 6-foot-5, 289-pound young man who plays a violent role in the trenches, but he is “still a kid,” as his mother, Sennecca, said. From the minute he was born, her son has been quiet. He’s comfortable around softer spirits and reclusive around older ones.

But Marty, now, rests under a Louisiana pecan tree. Jones left Coco at home in Vacherie, too, after the Broncos traded up in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft to swing on his raw talent. And entering his second season in Denver, Jones is staring at a prime opportunity to shed a more reticent skin to make a louder impact at the heart of the Broncos’ defense.

Last fall, former Broncos defensive end��John Franklin-Myers took it upon himself to mentor Jones, despite being acutely aware that Denver may have drafted Jones to replace him. Franklin-Myers is now gone to Tennessee, a considerable loss for a defense that thrived on his and All-Pro Zach Allen’s symbiotic relationship. Jones is perhaps the highest-upside candidate of a mix of veterans and youngsters who will vie in training camp to fill Franklin-Myers’ void, with no clear arrangement sorted on this defensive-line carousel.

“With the way we’re rotating those guys — if it happens to be one individual when training camp comes, great,” head coach Sean Payton said in June, when asked about replacing Franklin-Myers’ snaps. “If it happens to be the sum total of the group, so be it.”

Reserve Eyioma Uwazurike wants it��and is the most logical immediate replacement. Third-round rookie Tyler Onyedim, the Broncos’ first draft pick in 2026, turned heads externally and internally in the offseason program. Veteran Malcolm Roach could veer away from nose tackle to fill some of the void. And after a rookie year in which he played just 39 snaps, the Broncos still believe Jones will be “a player,” as general manager George Paton said in January.

Jones just needs to seize his spot on the board.

“He’s developed at the right pace for us,” Broncos defensive-line coach Jamar Cain told The Post in September. “He’s doing everything we ask him to do. But being a quiet kid, sometimes you forget he’s there. Show up. Let us know that you’re there. Let us know that you’re doing your job. And he is.”

‘God had other plans for him’

Jones has died before. Twice, actually. He still has the mark in his neck, as a reminder only his mother will truly understand.

At two months old, he was diagnosed with a breathing disorder called laryngomalacia, where tissue . Not uncommon. Often harmless. But baby Jones’ condition was dire enough to necessitate a tracheotomy tube in his neck to open his windpipe, and one day his babysitter heard him dead silent and noticed he’d yanked the tube out of his neck.

Seneca was at a party when her family called her, and told her to meet them at the local hospital . She arrived to hospital staff yelling code blue. Her son flatlined. And was resuscitated. And flatlined. And was resuscitated. And airlifted by helicopter to Children’s Hospital New Orleans.

He spent the first year of his life on a heart monitor and an oxygen machine. Sennecca said she still thinks of those days often. Impossible to forget.

“I think about how blessed he is, and how he has a testimony to share,” she told The Post last summer. “Hopefully, one day, he’ll share it and encourage some people. Because, he’s real quiet. He don’t speak much. You gotta pull words out of him. But he’s definitely blessed, and he came a long way.

“He could’ve been dead and gone,” she continued. “But God had other plans for him.”

Her son doesn’t remember, really. But tendrils of memory can sneak through the subconscious. Jones did speech therapy until middle school and would only speak to certain people growing up, his cousin Jontae recalled. In his senior year at St. James High in Vacherie, Jones became the first defensive lineman to win the Sportsline Player of the Year Award, presented by Baton Rouge television station WAFB.

He did not quite ham it up .

“That was a real eye-opening experience … he wasn’t comfortable with that, at the time,” said former St. James defensive coordinator LaVanta Davis.

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, Vacherie is a town of fewer than 5,500 people. Sennecca said her son was “scared” when he first got to LSU. Jones barely played his freshman season. As a sophomore, he was enrolled in a public speaking class. He hated it, his mother recalled. Cain, then LSU’s defensive-line coach, would call Jones’ mother and tell her he was slipping. She’d tell Cain to do what he needed to.

“Sai’vion knew,” Sennecca said, “not to play with Coach Cain.”

Cain helped Jones through that class, Sennecca recalled. And helped him assert his voice, too, in the middle of a stacked LSU defensive line room. The Tigers had several upperclassmen and future NFL players ahead of Jones on the depth chart, and yet Cain would preach to Jones that he didn’t need to simply wait his turn.

“Be a player,” Cain would tell him.

Jones tallied the third-most sacks (4.5) on the roster despite finishing 16th in defensive snaps and leveraged the season into a starting role for two more seasons at LSU.

“I said, ‘You’re better than him — go take his job,'” Cain recalled. “Like, this is on you. Don’t be happy being a backup. And then that����ap when he started taking off.”

Coveted size and speed

He is a different man now, after the LSU spotlight has coaxed Jones’ personality out to reporters. At heart, he is not that different. At the start of last season, The Post asked Sennecca if she had any idea where her son’s head was at as he entered his rookie season in Denver.

“I don’t know,” Sennecca said, laughing. “I have no clue. He don’t talk.”

Jones has had a familiar ally in Cain, though, a highly touted defensive-line mind who jumped to the Broncos in 2023 after that one season with LSU. Their journey picked up right back where it left off three years ago, on a new stage but in a similar situation. And Cain has prodded Jones just the same as when he was in college — a young man who ignites, former coach Davis said, when he realizes he has a legitimate opportunity in front of him.

“100%,” Cain said last fall, asked if he’s encouraged Jones to take others’ jobs in Denver. “I’ve done that with him. ‘Hey, Sai’vion, let’s get going, let’s get going.'”

The Broncos, certainly, did not expect or need Jones to fill an immediate need in 2025. Cain was the architect of a pass rush that finished tied for the fifth-most sacks in NFL history, after all, and Denver knew Jones would need some post-Louisiana seasoning after transitioning from an edge rusher to an interior defensive lineman over the course of his college career.

The promise, though, is simple enough: Jones has the burst of a speed rusher with the frame to put on a defensive tackle’s weight. He ran a blazing 1.59-second 10-yard split in pre-draft testing in 2025 and has the height and arm length (33.5 inches) to shed blocks quickly, as his high school coach Valdez said.

“He’s a big, physical player,” Patriots left tackle Will Campbell told The Post on Jones, his former LSU teammate, during the week of Super Bowl LX in February. “Extremely talented … I know Sai’vion will be ready when his name is called.”

But Franklin-Myers and Jones, both, were well aware of the veteran’s expiring contract amid their mentor-mentee relationship last season. The Broncos specifically chose to let the 29-year-old Franklin-Myers walk for a three-year, $63 million deal in free agency, and have made the explicit decision to turn to internal development rather than pay for external help to fill a rather sizeable hole.

“We got a lot of good guys, and that’s going to create a lot of opportunities for people,” Allen said in June. “And we came close to the sack record last year, and we fully expect to break it this year.”

Easier said than done without Franklin-Myers, who finished with a career-best 7.5 sacks in 2025 and had a larger impact than simple raw numbers. According to film charted by The Post, the Broncos’ three best pass-rushers — Allen, Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper — all had more sacks last season when Franklin-Myers was on the field as opposed to off (even as Franklin-Myers had just a 49% snap share in 2025).

The room is well aware, as Roach said, that it needs to find a way to fill Franklin-Myers’ shoes.

“After watching the cut-ups, you kind of realize what you’re missing there,” defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said in June. “We’ve drafted to that position fairly well, so we have some young guys that we expect to step up and play. That����ap their job. That����ap why we drafted those guys … you can’t pay everyone. So we chose to let JFM walk and draft to his position. So those guys have to play well.”

In Uwazurike, Onyedim, and Jones, the Broncos have three suitors for Franklin-Myers’ snaps who have completely different body types yet are cut from the same cloth. The 28-year-old Uwazurike and 23-year-old Onyedim, in fact, overlapped for a season at Iowa State in 2021. And when the Cyclones were recruiting Onyedim out of Richmond, Texas, then-Iowa State defensive line coach Eli Rasheed went to then-senior Uwazurike and told him he wanted him to serve as Onyedim’s “big brother.”

The similarities run deeper, beyond a shared Nigerian background. Uwazurike played his entire high school career at��Southfield-Lathrup, a campus in Michigan,��. He left high school underdeveloped, and left Iowa State with untapped upside, as former defensive coordinator Jon Hancock would tell NFL scouts that Uwazurike’s best football was still ahead of him. And Uwazurike is still raw in NFL terms, with just 637 career defensive snaps after a full-season gambling suspension in 2023.

Onyedim, Hancock told The Post, is the “same guy” in football terms — carrying raw upside into Iowa State and beyond.

“Enyi is, now, still tapping on the ceiling that’s growing,” Rasheed said. “Tyler is the same human in a twitched-up, faster body.”

In June, discussing Uwazurike’s development, Joseph made clear that all three in this triumvirate could cycle in to fill Franklin-Myers’ absence. Sometimes, even, all within the same set of downs.

“Maybe it’s a first-and-second-down run-stopping role,” Joseph said, “and Sai’vion takes over the pass-rush role.”

That name-drop means something and carries expectation. Jones has always lived on his own wavelength, his cousin Jontae said. He has been a young man comfortable in his own shell, family members said, only cracking when his frame got too large for him to remain hidden away.

And the Broncos want him — and maybe need him — to fully break through.

In Week 16, Jacksonville torched Denver for 34 points at Empower Field and put the Broncos on notice that they would not waltz through the rest of their regular season, let alone the postseason.

Quarterback Trevor Lawrence engineered a quartet of red zone touchdown conversions against the NFL’s best group.

Early in the fourth quarter, though, Robinson, a rookie outside linebacker, made a stand.

On first-and-goal from the 5-yard line, Robinson ripped unblocked off Lawrence’s left side as the quarterback meshed with running back Travis Etienne. Earlier, Lawrence, on a similar call, had pulled the ball, got leverage on Robinson, and walked in for a 1-yard touchdown.

He tried again.

This time, Robinson crashed into the quarterback and dropped him for a 5-yard loss.

On second-and-goal, Robinson blew off the line of scrimmage, ricocheted off of Etienne, and into an inside spin move past tackle Cole Van Lanen. Hurried, Lawrence dumped the ball off for a 3-yard gain.

Then, on third-and-7, the Jags finally wised up. Lawrence motioned running back LeQuint Allen into the backfield and deployed him to chip Robinson, effectively double-teaming him. An incomplete pass meant Jacksonville’s lone red zone failure of the afternoon.

Robinson’s on-the-job training as a fourth-round rookie came in fits and spurts last fall. He dressed for only six regular-season games, but played regularly in rotation when he was in uniform. He made the most eye-popping play of his first professional season — a turbocharged sack of New England’s Drake Maye in the AFC Championship Game —��only after he was a gameday inactive in the divisional round against Buffalo.

Over the course of 162 defensive snaps and about the same on special teams, though, Robinson put himself squarely on the Broncos’ radar as a Year 2 breakout candidate. He did so long before fellow outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper ran into legal trouble that has clouded at least his 2026 outlook and potentially his standing with the club altogether.

Before Cooper’s two arrests in the span of one June week, Robinson was part of an interesting, productive young group of edge rushers that give Denver options and enviable depth behind star rusher Nik Bonitto. Now Robinson and that group may well be counted on in a much more substantial way for weeks or longer this fall.

Que Robinson starting to tap into vast ‘physical gifts’

George Paton is not prone to hyperbole.

The Broncos general manager is a scout at his core, and he talks about players in that manner.

Just after Denver’s AFC title game loss, Paton was asked about the progress of the team’s rookie class —��headlined by first-round pick Jahdae Barron, second-round running back RJ Harvey and also including third-round defensive lineman Sai’Vion Jones, whom the Broncos traded up to draft. Paton said it was Robinson, though, who “may have the most upside of anyone in our draft class, and you could see it the other day.”

The other day, in this case, was when Robinson started up the field against the Patriots, put his hands on tight end Hunter Henry to disrupt his route to the flat, then eliminated a 5-yard gap between himself and Maye in a blink for a 9-yard sack.

That����ap the kind of play that can launch a young player into an offseason and a second season brimming with confidence.

“It����ap huge. It����ap huge,” outside linebackers coach Isaac Shewmaker told The Post earlier this month. “Take the teaching. We talk about the upfield shoulder of the tight end to help you redirect to the quarterback. That kind of thing, when those little things start happening and then you get the results, just the confidence you feel. …

“That����ap just what helps you begin to play confident and grow.”

Robinson, listed at 6-foot-4 and 243 pounds, has long arms and a powerful frame. The Broncos loved his physical traits when they drafted him No. 134 overall last spring, but they didn’t know exactly how fast they’d start to see returns. After all, the former five-star high school recruit played just 370 defensive snaps in his four-year career at Alabama. That was hardly his fault. Robinson found himself behind the likes of future first-rounders Will Anderson Jr. and Dallas Turner.

“Throughout the whole draft process, I liked what I saw,” Shewmaker said. “There were physical traits that I really liked. When he got here, same thing. He kept showing it. His thing is, just making him play with confidence. Giving him the confidence that, ‘you go out there and you play fast. Everything else is on me.’

“When he lets it loose, you see the physical gifts he has.”

Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph saw them when Robinson was on the field, but even more acutely when he did his annual postseason film review.

When Robinson’s name came up earlier this month, a smile creased the veteran coordinator’s face.

The Vance Jospeh smile when Que Robinson’s name comes up.

Said the second-year OLB looks like a player who “can be a future starter for us.”

— Parker Gabriel (@ParkerJGabriel)

“When Que played, he played really well,” Joseph said. “It looked like a guy who can be a future starter for us.”

Joseph uttered those words after Cooper’s first arrest but hours before his second.

The future typically arrives faster than expected in the NFL. For Robinson, there’s at least a chance it����ap arriving this summer.

Healthy Jonah Ellis, steady Dondrea Tillman and a wildcard

One of Shewmaker’s favorite sequences of the season arrived early.

When Marvin Mims Jr. muffed a Week 1 punt early in the fourth quarter, Tennessee and rookie quarterback Cam Ward were set up at the Broncos’ 22-yard line and trailing 13-12 with 11:43 to go.

That����ap not exactly game on the line, but it was a huge moment in a game teetering toward trouble for the heavily favored Broncos.

The defense trotted onto the field with Jonah Elliss and Dondrea Tillman at outside linebacker instead of Bonitto and Cooper.

After a 2-yard Tony Pollard run, Elliss sacked Ward for a 16-yard loss. Then on third-and-24, Tillman won clean off the edge and forced Ward to spin away and into Zach Allen’s arms for another 11-yard backtrack.

From sure to take the lead to out of field goal range, largely at the hands of a pair of reserve edge rushers.

“That����ap what it is,” Shewmaker said. “There’s no one, two, three, four. There are the guys that are up for each game and let����ap go. … I’m not worried about, ‘Oh, I have to have one of those (starters) on the field.’ I’ve got full confidence in everybody else, so we’re going to try to keep everybody as fresh as we can.

“I don’t like playing more than three to four plays in a row and then we’re going to get the next guys in. And we’re just going to keep on that.”

Elliss and Tillman have been the primary reasons the Broncos have been able to play that way the past two seasons. Tillman, a summer signing out of the UFL in 2024, has nine sacks the past two seasons and has played in 25 straight games plus three playoff contests since November 2024.

Elliss burst out of the gate as a rookie with five sacks in 2024, but dealt with shoulder and hamstring issues last fall and never looked like he was really in top form.

Broncos staff praise Elliss’ versatility and the group pondered moving him inside this year, but “at the end of the day he’s a really good rusher,” Shewmaker said simply.

“Last year he got dinged up a little bit and it was hard to get into a rhythm,” he added. “But he’s a great player for us on the edge and then we’ll just try to find more ways to get him on the field.”

Drew Sanders has been more than dinged up and represents the wild card in the group this summer. The 2023 third-round pick didn’t play a snap last year after injuring his foot in training camp and missed 13 in 2024 due to an Achilles tear. That means Sanders has played in just four games the past two seasons after appearing in all 17 as a rookie in 2023.

Can he stay healthy? Can he unlock the potential that����ap so far sat idly in an athletic, explosive player?

For now, the Broncos have smaller goals for him.

“He can get the alignment, the assignment, all of that,” head coach Sean Payton said earlier this month. “There’s a young player that, knock on wood, we feel like is really talented. …

“He’s coming into this portion of training camp healthy, so I’m encouraged with that.”

The Jonathon Cooper question will need an answer eventually

The next date on Cooper’s court calendar is a hearing on July 24, four days before Broncos veterans report for training camp.

Cooper’s criminal cases have been consolidated into one that includes four charges, led by one for felony assault. They stem from two incidents involving his girlfriend, the first an argument that turned physical, including Cooper acknowledging to a police officer that he picked his girlfriend up by the neck, according to an updated arrest affidavit. Cooper participated in Broncos OTAs after the initial arrest but then was arrested again a week later, hours after Denver’s practice ended, after his girlfriend said he showed up at her apartment and pounded on the door for 5-10 minutes and also sent her 20 unreturned messages. He has not been with the team since and was an excused absence from the club’s mandatory minicamp on June 16 and 17.

If Cooper’s case goes to trial, it will almost certainly be well into training camp or even the regular season. That means the NFL and the Broncos could have to decide what, if any, punishment they will levy before the criminal proceedings play out.

The league’s personal conduct policy does not require a player to be convicted in criminal court to be subject to discipline and lays out a baseline six-game suspension for players found to have engaged in domestic violence, “with possible upward or downward adjustments based on any aggravating or mitigating factors.”

There is also the eventual question of whether the Broncos will consider cutting ties with Cooper altogether. He is the first player to be arrested since Payton arrived and since the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group purchased the team in August 2022.

After Cooper’s initial arrest, Payton said that the team had “a long visit” with him. After the second, the veteran coach spoke about the organization’s high standards and said, “We’ll consider all of that as we continue to gather the information.”

An eventual decision will undoubtedly be seen as a marker for how Payton and how the ownership group will handle such cases going forward.

Money is unlikely to be a driving factor, but it will become part of the equation if Denver releases Cooper.

The 28-year-old signed a four-year, $54 million extension in 2024 and pocketed $15 million of that money during the first two seasons. He’s due $12 million more this year.

Denver, though, could go after a substantial portion of that money if it wants to, following a potential release.

Only $1.7 million of Cooper’s 2026 pay is guaranteed. On top of that,�� more than $20 million of Cooper’s deal has been paid or allocated as signing bonus. Any of that bonus money allocated for 2026 or beyond — a total of $17.1 million — is eligible for forfeiture, multiple player agents told The Post. If the Broncos tried to claw back all or some of that money, a grievance would likely follow. If the club succeeded, it would gain salary cap credit for the money forfeited.

All of that is of downballot concern, but it could enter the picture at some point.

In the meantime, the Broncos’ young pass-rushers step to the fore. Robinson would have been a player to watch even without Cooper’s troubles. Now, he’s even more so.

“The strength and size he has, there’s not going to be many tight ends that can block him,” Shewmaker said. “Not many tackles that can block him one-on-one, either.”

Sean Payton wants no part of them this summer.

The Broncos head coach on Thursday said his team will not practice against any of its three preseason opponents in August.

Instead, the Broncos will travel to Atlanta and host Green Bay and Minnesota without seeing any additional work against those teams.

Payton said the decision to skip what����ap become a training camp staple around the NFL in recent years stems from Denver’s long postseason run in January.

The Broncos were the last team to start their voluntary offseason program by two weeks when they began lifting and running May 4. They cut out a week of OTAs, too.

All of that, Payton said, means Denver needs a relatively uninterrupted training camp.

“When you do have a joint practice, you miss maybe two days of installation,” he explained. “So this year we know we have the preseason games, but we’re not going to have a joint practice.”

Payton is among the coaches who still plays his starters in preseason games. Many around the league now prefer to let their top guys get work in the more controlled joint practice environment, then play only backups in preseason games.

Payton, though, said he doesn’t pay attention to other teams’ workloads or care when, for example, Green Bay played all of its starters during joint practice work but then held out its top players for a preseason game in Denver two summers ago.

“When we have a joint practice, we pay attention to the reps that we get and the reps they get in the game the next couple days,” he said. “We’ll do the same if we’re not. Obviously we haven’t had a joint practice every preseason week. So we’ll manage their snap counts.”

Doesn’t he think that joint practices are good for evaluating players?

“So are the games,” Payton said. “We play them in the games.”

Jonah Elliss is (mostly) an outside linebacker after all

The Jonah Elliss inside linebacker experiment did not go very far.

Or, at least, it hasn’t so far.

Elliss spent Thursday’s practice working with the Broncos outside linebackers and Payton indicated that����ap mostly where he’ll stay.

“That����ap where his home will be initially,” Payton said. “There may be some packages where he’s inside and we have some flex. But he’s doing too well outside.”

Payton earlier this year said Elliss would get time playing inside and teammates including Nik Bonitto and Alex Singleton talked about believing Elliss could make the transition smoothly.

Instead, he’ll mostly be an outside linebacker along with Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper, Dondrea Tillman, Que Robinson, Drew Sanders and others.

Broncos will attempt to ‘Go the Distance’

Safety Talanoa Hufanga stepped to the podium Thursday to speak with reporters after practice. He did so wearing a cutoff navy t-shirt that “G.T.D.” in white block lettering.

What does that mean?

“It����ap our strength staff, they come up with a slogan during the offseason,” Hufanga said. “This year it����ap ‘Go the Distance.’ Just being able to finish. We didn’t go the distance last year, so we’ve got to make sure we get that this time.”

Hufanga took his share of responsibility for Denver coming up short last year, saying he needed to do better taking the football away. The safety played high-level football in his first year for the Broncos, but he dropped several potential interceptions, too.

“I got back on the JUGS (machine),” Hufanga said. “The reason I couldn’t get on the JUGS last year — and this is an excuse, I’ll be honest — was I was coming off my wrist surgery. A lot of it was just coming off of wearing a club during the game. That was really uncomfortable and really hard to learn again. My hand-eye coordination was really not great. But that is an excuse. I own up to it and I have to be better.”

Hufanga said he had plenty of chances that were anything but difficult.

“I don’t know I dropped all of them because some of them were gimmes,” he said. “I’m being real with you, man, they dropped right in my lap and I didn’t come out with them.”

“Everything we’re doing is hard to accomplish,” Payton said in June of last year, “when that group is not what it needs to be.”

It has been, in Denver. Under offensive-line shepherd Zach Strief, the Broncos have spent handsomely to build one of the most stable fronts in the NFL. The franchise has committed over $341 million in total contract value for starters Garett Bolles, Ben Powers, Luke Wattenberg, Quinn Meinerz and Mike McGlinchey since 2023. And the front office has had its faith rewarded for choosing to preserve that group, rather than splinter it for cheaper options.

That investment has suddenly never been more important heading into 2026.

On Monday, the NFL world erupted as the Los Angeles Rams tossed in Pro Bowler Jared Verse and several draft picks for Cleveland Browns titan Myles Garrett. If this were any previous season in Payton’s tenure, this would’ve meant little to Denver. But the league’s rotating schedule ensures the Broncos will face the Rams in Week 3, and now have to mark up a protection plan for the man who .

The Garrett trade, now, only adds another layer to a brutal early-season stretch for Denver — and specifically for the Broncos’ offensive front. Strief, in truth, might not be able to take an actual breath until late October. Consider this run of pass-rushers:

• Week 2 vs. Jacksonville and OLB Josh Hines-Allen, who tied with Nik Bonitto for the fourth-most quarterback pressures in the NFL in 2025 (80)
• Week 3 vs. the Rams and Garrett, the NFL’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year
• Week 4: at San Francisco and former Defensive Player of the Year Nick Bosa, healthy again after missing all but three games in 2025
• Week 5 at Chargers, who recorded the two highest pressure rates on Bo Nix of any game on Denver’s regular-season schedule last year
• Week 6: vs. reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle, who recorded the fourth-highest pressure rate of any team in 2025

Such a gauntlet of a schedule is ultimately a major reason Denver has so much money tied up in its offensive front. In fact, the Broncos have the third-highest percentage of 2026 cap room tied up in their top seven offensive linemen, according to Spotrac cap-space data assembled by The Post.

This has been Denver’s philosophy since Payton arrived in 2023, as the Broncos’ rebuild began with the signing of McGlinchey and Powers to big-money free-agent deals.

“When Strief first came here and we brought in Mike, brought in Ben, the very foundation of our offensive line is being able to be ready for the biggest moment on the biggest stage,” Meinerz said in late January before the AFC Championship game against New England. “And so, as we’re continuing to play in these bigger and bigger games — our entire philosophy since they got here, for years at this point — that����ap how we treat every single two-minute we work on in training camp. That����ap how we work every single third-down period is, we want to be perfect.”

They were not, in that season-ending 10-7 loss to the Patriots. New England shook free to shake up backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham one too many times, and Patriots defensive lineman Christian Barmore made clear postgame that .

“First-team All-Pro,” Barmore said, after Meinerz was tagged by Pro Football Focus with surrendering five pressures in New England’s win. “Our coach tells us all the time that All-Pro don’t mean (expletive), excuse my language. Doesn’t matter. Our coaches tell us every time, ‘They All-Pros, they the targets.’ So that’s the mission. He’s a hell of a player, but this is for us.”

On the whole, though, Denver’s offensive front largely met the moment in pass protection in 2025. According to a film review by The Denver Post, Broncos offensive linemen were only directly responsible for 14 sacks surrendered to players they were blocking in the 17-game regular season. And the Broncos held five of seven winning defenses they faced last year under their overall quarterback pressure rate in the regular season, according to data collected from Next Gen Stats.

They’ll need more in 2026, and their collection of opponents helps explain the Broncos’ offseason approach to their offensive line. As the calendar has now flipped past June 1, Denver could save itself over $30 million in cap space by cutting or trading McGlinchey and Powers. But the organization has long avoided cutting productive players solely to take money off the books, and would likely only consider moving Powers if reserve Alex Palczewski or fourth-round rookie Kage Casey clearly outplays him at left guard come training camp.

The gang is all back, then, for a third straight year with the exact same starting offensive line. And the Broncos will need all five pieces to topple a Thanos-level threat in Garrett.

Von Miller is a Denver icon, a Mile High legend, the engine of the defense, the life of the party, the Mick Jagger of ����apountry.

One problem: The Broncos already have a lead singer.

They’re looking for bass players, keyboardists, percussionists and backup dancers. It’s the Sean & Bo Show now,

“I would love to assist and be a vice president to Bo Nix and Courtland Sutton,” Miller told The Post’s Parker Gabriel a few days earlier at a Von’s Vision function in Commerce City. “I’ve been the guy and also I’ve been the vice president as well.

“I’d love to contribute to us getting back to the glory land, holding up that trophy and confetti falling again. For me, my whole entire life, I’ve helped guys be the best version of themselves and I’d love to do that back here with the Denver Broncos back home.”

Having No. 58 in the fold would be a hit for fans who’ve still got Miller jerseys hanging in their closets and a boon for media looking for a sound bite from one of the best to ever play in orange and blue.

And Von — who racked up nine sacks as a situational pass-rusher in Washington last fall — knows a good thing when he sees it, having faced the Broncos with the Bills and with the Commanders over the last three seasons.

Assuming Nix is healthy (crosses fingers), the Broncos are on the Super Bowl train, and Miller would love nothing more than to close out a Hall-of-Fame career with another ring in his favorite NFL town.

Von Miller playing for Sean Payton — D

Never say never, right? The kids up in the Grading The Week department would love to dust off their replica jerseys and party like it’s 2015 all over again.

“I think there’s no question the type of environment I bring to a locker room,” Miller told Gabriel. “I think there’s no question to the type of environment I bring to a team.”

Yet the bean-counters over the corner office keep reminding us of the same thing whenever the subject of No. 58 returning to the Broncos gets brought up:

Ain’t nowhere for The Vonster to play.

The law firm of (Nik) Bonitto & (Jonathon) Cooper are in their respective primes coming off the edge, combining for 22 sacks a season ago.

Behind them, Dondrea Tillman (four sacks in ’25) has been a revelation who hasn’t slowed down, while second-year rusher Que Robinson recorded a sack in the AFC Championship Game. Drew Sanders is looking for a home, and all Jonah Elliss does is make plays.

Whose snaps would you give to Miller, who’s still spry at age 37 but is creeping in the winter of his playing days?

“Obviously, I wouldn’t start. Obviously, I wouldn’t play special teams,” Miller continued. “But I will say, the type of room that we would have, the outside linebackers with me, Nik Bonitto, we’d be a force. Whatever (the) coach (has) going on, I would just contribute to that. The defense that we’d have. I’d love to bring back those Super Bowl 50 vibes.”

Yeah, but here’s the thing: This defense kind of already has those vibes — just with a different generation under defensive coordinator Vance Joseph. The Broncos also need their second-and third-wave of linebackers to play on special teams, my friend.

Von was the face of the Broncos seven years ago, and a good one. But that face is Payton’s now. That voice is Payton’s now.

Miller will retire a Bronco. But Team GTW wagers it’ll be the same way Justin Simmons just retired as a Bronco — with a ceremony, a 1-day contract, a news conference, some tears and a hearty thanks for services rendered and memories we’ll never let go.

They have very few starting spots up for grabs, at least on paper.

They have, relatively speaking, very few question marks.

And yet, Sean Payton’s fourth team will have plenty of competition throughout the early portions of the summer and into training camp.

There are, by The Post����ap count, somewhere in the neighborhood of seven to nine spots up for grabs on the 53-man roster at the moment and a pool of perhaps 18-20 players vying for them. Those counts come before any of the inevitable injuries that will crop up between now and the end of August.

This early projection comes before any potential substantial roster move, of which Denver has typically made at least one between OTAs and the start of the regular season. A year ago, for example, the Broncos signed running back J.K. Dobbins in June and then traded receiver Devaughn Vele in August.

It also comes before any big training camp surprise, a young player who makes a strong push or a veteran who suddenly appears out of gas.

Before Payton’s team starts OTAs on Tuesday, here’s an early attempt at a 53-man roster projection. The point of this exercise at this calendar waypoint is merely to mark a starting point and to attempt to determine where the most uncertainty — and opportunity — lies on the Broncos’ current 91-man roster.

Finding 53 among this group requires tough decisions even before any actual football activity has started. There are players that were difficult to leave off the roster and some groups — offensive and defensive lines, in particular — that are deep enough to impact other spots. Payton and general manager George Paton have shown time and time again they value quality players in the trenches.

There are a handful of veterans who could theoretically be considered cut candidates because of a combination of depth and salary, like tight end Evan Engram ($14.14 million cap hit) and left guard Ben Powers ($18.16 million). Denver could trade a veteran or quality player from a position of strength to help fortify elsewhere or accumulate future draft capital.

Among the players who look from this distance likely to exist somewhere around the bubble, however, none has a bigger cap number than offensive lineman Matt Peart����ap $2.39 million or more guaranteed money than quarterback Sam Ehlinger’s $1 million.

So, away we go. Players in the bubble conversation, both above and below the roster cut in this exercise, are in italics.

OFFENSE (25)

Quarterback (3)

Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham and Sam Ehlinger

The question, really, with Denver’s quarterbacks is this: two or three? Denver started last year with two when Ehlinger agreed to start the season on the practice squad. If a similar scenario plays out — he’s got $1 million guaranteed — then the Broncos could well take two. Denver values Ehlinger, though, and he’s going to get a bunch of work in OTAs and likely minicamp after Bo Nix had a second ankle procedure last month. This makes for tougher calls at other spots on a deep roster, but let����ap not mess around with the quarterback position when you’ve got players you like. If nothing else, using three as the starting point in this exercise ups the difficulty level the rest of the way.

Running back (4)

J.K. Dobbins, RJ Harvey, Jonah Coleman and Adam Prentice (FB)��

Also: Jaleel McLaughlin, Tyler Badie and Cody Schrader

Coleman’s selection in the fourth round changes the complexion here by quite a bit. He’s a potential third-down back right away and the Broncos are high on him if he’s needed beyond that early on. With a cleaner-fitting trio of backs, McLaughlin and Badie both have a tough road to the roster. If Denver wanted four plus Prentice, McLaughlin probably heads into the summer with the lead.

Tight end (4)

Adam Trautman, Evan Engram, Justin Joly and Caleb Lohner��

Also: Dallen Bentley, Nate Adkins and Lucas Krull

One of the toughest projections. Lohner gets the nod for the moment after Payton raved about him earlier in May, especially because Payton was particularly impressed with Lohner’s physicality and blocking. This, like many bubble decisions, could come down to who Denver thinks it can get to the practice squad between Lohner and Bentley, the No. 256 overall pick in April. With a bounce-back summer, Adkins could re-establish himself as a key role player. He could end up competing for a spot with Prentice, though, as much as it seems he could play some fullback; the Broncos just haven’t asked him to do it much so far in his career.

Wide receiver (5)

Courtland Sutton, Jaylen Waddle, Pat Bryant, Troy Franklin and Marvin Mims Jr.

Also: Michael Bandy, Lil’Jordan Humphrey, Michael Woods, Cam Ross, Kolbie Katsis, Joseph Manjack and Dane Key

Assuming no trades, it����ap hard to see how anybody besides the top five makes the initial 53-man roster. Waddle was the Broncos’ big offseason splash and, though he will impact playing time for the rest of the room, Denver’s brass has been consistent in saying they’re not looking to move on from any of the regulars. Bandy and Humphrey are no strangers to starting the season on a practice squad and eventually seeing time on the 53-man roster. It’ll be interesting to see if an undrafted rookie like Ross can make the Broncos think twice about going status quo, but that����ap a tall task.

Offensive line (9)

Garett Bolles, Ben Powers, Luke Wattenberg, Quinn Meinerz, Mike McGlinchey, Alex Palczewski, Frank Crum, Kage Casey and Alex Forsyth��

Also: Matt Peart, Nick Gargiulo, Calvin Throckmorton, Tyler Miller, Gavin Ortega, Michael Dieter and Nash Jones

The Broncos have enviable depth on their offensive line, but, like with wide receiver, the roles are defined enough that it����ap difficult to imagine a ton of wiggle room. Palczewski and Crum are valued depth and development pieces and Casey, a fourth-round pick, joins them in a similar mold. Forsyth has been the clear No. 2 center for two seasons behind Wattenberg. That����ap nine. Peart and Throckmorton are veterans who have stepped in and played, while Gargiulo showed some promise before a bad preseason knee injury last summer. Miller and Ortega are interesting undrafted rookies but, outside a rash of injuries or major training camp push, it����ap reasonable to think they’re ticketed for the practice squad.

DEFENSE (25)

Defensive line (7)

Zach Allen, DJ Jones, Malcolm Roach, Eyioma Uwauzurike, Tyler Onyedim, Sai’Vion Jones and Jordan Jackson

Also: Matt Henningsen, Jordan Miller and Kristian Williams

A key part of the rationale for going heavy here again: Each of the past two years the roster cutdown has passed and Payton and Paton have made it clear that Jackson made the 53-man roster easily. We’ll bet for now that the same ends up happening this summer. They might decide they just have to have a player at another position. Maybe somebody else is a surprise cut, though among this group 2025 third-rounder Sai’Vion Jones is the only real candidate and that would be a major surprise given they traded up for him and also liked his development last season. So, Payton and Paton instead stick to their principles and go heavy up front once again.

Outside linebacker (4)

Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper, Que Robinson and Dondrea Tillman

Also: Drew Sanders, Johnny Walker and Dasan McCullough

The first three are absolute locks and there’s not much doubt about Tillman, either. The going gets tough from there. Health has been a major obstacle for Sanders, but if he plays all summer, he’ll probably be productive enough to make the roster. The numbers just get tight elsewhere in a hurry. Keeping four here is really 4.5 in a way because Jonah Elliss can play on the edge if needed, plus a deep defensive line group can help take some work off the edge guys against heavier teams. Sanders is a training camp wild card, though.

Inside linebacker (4)

Alex Singleton, Justin Strnad, Jonah Elliss and Red Murdock��

Also: Jordan Turner, Karene Reid, Levelle Bailey, Taurean York

Once again, this is about roster management and who makes it to the practice squad after the top three. Murdock was Mr. Irrelevant in the draft at No. 257, but forced 17 fumbles in his college career at Buffalo. Turner’s got real promise, so it was not an easy call to leave him off. Reid was a special teams regular after making the initial roster as an undrafted rookie last year, but this is maybe a tougher roster to make despite the release of Dre Greenlaw earlier this spring.

Cornerback (5)

Pat Surtain II, Riley Moss, Ja’Quan McMillian, Jahdae Barron and Kris Abrams-Draine

Also: Reese Taylor, Jaden Robinson, Brent Austin, Ahmari Harvey and Paul Manning

Pretty straightforward here. The major storyline is more about beyond 2026, as McMillian and Moss are both entering contract years. For now, though, this is one of the deepest and most talented cornerback groups in football. Taylor has been a regular on the practice squad and was promoted to the active roster from mid-November on last year. The only question is if new secondary coaches Rob Livingston and Doug Belk see any of the personnel differently than Jim Leonhard and Addison Lynch previously.

Safety (5)

Talanoa Hufanga, Brandon Jones, Devon Key, Miles Scott and JL Skinner

Also: Tycen Anderson and Parker Robertson

There will be competition across multiple position groups based on special teams output. You can put Skinner, Anderson, Scott, Taylor, Turner, Reid, Sanders and more all into that group. The Broncos gave Anderson $650,000 guaranteed in part to be a key special teams player, so he might well make it. But over who? That signing was before Denver drafted Scott. Skinner is entering the final year of his rookie deal and is at a critical point in his career. The way coaches have talked about Key this offseason, he feels like the early favorite to replace P.J. Locke as the No. 3 safety. Denver signed Sam Franklin and gave him $1.34 million in guarantees last year, then cut him in August.

SPECIALIST (3)

PK Wil Lutz, P Jeremy Crawshaw and LS Mitch Fraboni

Also: LS Luke Basso

Not much mystery here. The Broncos signed the rookie Basso as summer competition, but Fraboni’s been solid and is under contract through 2027.